Published February 13, 2025 | Version Published
Journal Article Open

Possible causes of false general relativity violations in gravitational wave observations

  • 1. ROR icon University of Mississippi
  • 2. ROR icon Chennai Mathematical Institute
  • 3. ROR icon INFN Sezione di Trieste
  • 4. ROR icon French National Centre for Scientific Research
  • 5. ROR icon Johns Hopkins University
  • 6. ROR icon Max Planck Institute for Gravitational Physics
  • 7. ROR icon University of Lisbon
  • 8. ROR icon ARC Centre of Excellence for Gravitational Wave Discovery
  • 9. ROR icon Pennsylvania State University
  • 10. ROR icon Utrecht University
  • 11. ROR icon University of Glasgow
  • 12. ROR icon National Institute for Subatomic Physics
  • 13. ROR icon International Centre for Theoretical Sciences
  • 14. ROR icon University of Portsmouth
  • 15. ROR icon Gran Sasso National Laboratory
  • 16. ROR icon University of Stavanger
  • 17. ROR icon INFN Sezione di Roma I
  • 18. ROR icon California Institute of Technology
  • 19. ROR icon University of Zurich
  • 20. ROR icon University of Virginia
  • 21. ROR icon Perimeter Institute
  • 22. ROR icon University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign
  • 23. ROR icon Cardiff University

Abstract

General relativity (GR) has proven to be a highly successful theory of gravity since its inception. The theory has thrivingly passed numerous experimental tests, predominantly in weak gravity, low relative speeds, and linear regimes, but also in the strong-field and very low-speed regimes with binary pulsars. Observable gravitational waves (GWs) originate from regions of spacetime where gravity is extremely strong, making them a unique tool for testing GR, in previously inaccessible regions of large curvature, relativistic speeds, and strong gravity. Since their first detection, GWs have been extensively used to test GR, but no deviations have been found so far. Given GR's tremendous success in explaining current astronomical observations and laboratory experiments, accepting any deviation from it requires a very high level of statistical confidence and consistency of the deviation across GW sources. In this paper, we compile a comprehensive list of potential causes that can lead to a false identification of a GR violation in standard tests of GR on data from current and future ground-based GW detectors. These causes include detector noise, signal overlaps, gaps in the data, detector calibration, source model inaccuracy, missing physics in the source and in the underlying environment model, source misidentification, and mismodeling of the astrophysical population. We also provide a rough estimate of when each of these causes will become important for tests of GR for different detector sensitivities. We argue that each of these causes should be thoroughly investigated, quantified, and ruled out before claiming a GR violation in GW observations.

Copyright and License

Copyright A. Gupta et al. This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License. Published by the SciPost Foundation.

Funding

A. Gupta, N.K. Johnson-McDaniel, and P. Narayan are supported by NSF Grants No. AST-2205920 and PHY-2308887. K.G. Arun acknowledges support from the Department of Science and Technology and Science and Engineering Research Board (SERB) of India via the Swarnajayanti Fellowship Grant DST/SJF/PSA-01/2017-18 and the Core Research Grant CRG/2021/004565. K.G. Arun and B.S. Sathyaprakash acknowledge the support of the Indo-US Science and Technology Forum through the Indo-US Centre for GravitationalPhysics and Astronomy, grant IUSSTF/JC-142/2019. E. Barausse acknowledges support from the European Union’s H2020 ERC Consolidator Grant “GRavity from Astrophysical to Microscopic Scales” (Grant No. GRAMS-815673), the PRIN 2022 grant “GUVIRP - Gravity tests in the UltraViolet and InfraRed with Pulsar timing”, and the EU Horizon 2020 Research and Innovation Programme under the Marie Sklodowska-Curie Grant Agreement No. 101007855. L. Bernard acknowledges financial support from the ANR PRoGRAM project, grant ANR-21- CE31-0003-001 and the EU Horizon 2020 Research and Innovation Programme under the Marie Sklodowska-Curie Grant Agreement no. 101007855. E. Berti and L. Reali are supported by NSF Grants No. AST-2307146, PHY-2207502, PHY-090003 and PHY-20043, by NASA Grant No. 21-ATP21-0010, by the John Templeton Foundation Grant 62840, by the Simons Foundation, and by the Italian Ministry of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation grant No. PGR01167. V. Cardoso is a Villum Investigator and a DNRF Chair, supported by the VILLUM Foundation (grant no. VIL37766) and the DNRF Chair program (grant no. DNRF162) by the Danish National Research Foundation. V. Cardoso acknowledges financial support provided under the European Union’s H2020 ERC Advanced Grant “Black holes: gravitational engines of discovery” grant agreement no. Gravitas–101052587. Views and opinions expressed are however those of the author only and do not necessarily reflect those of the European Union or the European Research Council. Neither the European Union nor the granting authority can be held responsible for them. V. Cardoso has received funding from the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under the Marie Skłodowska-Curie grant agreement No. 101007855 and No. 101131233. S.Y. Cheung, T. Clarke, N. Guttman, P.D. Lasky, L. Passenger, and H. Tong are supported by Australian Research Council (ARC) Centre of Excellence for Gravitational-Wave Discovery CE170100004 and CE230100016, Discovery Projects DP220101610 and DP230103088, and LIEF LE210100002. S. Datta acknowledges support from UVA Arts and Sciences Rising Scholars Fellowship. A. Dhani, I. Gupta, R. Kashyap and B.S. Sathyaprakash were supported in part by NSF Grants No. PHY-2207638, AST-2307147, PHY-2308886, and PHYS-2309064. B. Sathyaprakash also thanks the Aspen Center for Physics (ACP) for hospitality during the summer of 2022. J.M. Ezquiaga is supported by the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation program under the Marie Sklodowska-Curie grant agreement No. 847523 INTERACTIONS, and by VILLUM FONDEN (grant no. 53101 and 37766). E. Maggio acknowledges funding from the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - project number: 386119226. E. Maggio is supported by the European Union’s Horizon Europe research and innovation programme under the Marie Skłodowska-Curie grant agreement No. 101107586. A. Maselli acknowledges financial support from MUR PRIN Grants No. 2022-Z9X4XS and 2020KB33TP. S. Tiwari is supported by the Swiss National Science Foundation Ambizione grant no. PZ00P2-202204. K. Yagi is supported by NSF Grant PHY-2207349, PHY-2309066, PHYS-2339969, and the Owens Family Foundation. N. Yunes is supported by the Simons Foundation through Award No. 896696, the NSF Grant No. PHY-2207650, and the NASA Award No. 80NSSC22K0806.

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Additional details

Related works

Is new version of
Discussion Paper: arXiv:2405.02197 (arXiv)

Funding

Agence Nationale de la Recherche
ANR-21-CE31-0003-001
Australian Research Council
CE170100004
Australian Research Council
CE230100016
Australian Research Council
DP220101610
Australian Research Council
DP230103088
Australian Research Council
LE210100002
Danish National Research Foundation
DNRF162
Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft
386119226
European Research Council
GRAMS-815673
H2020 Future and Emerging Technologies
Gravitas–101052587
European Commission
101007855
European Commission
101107586
European Commission
101131233
European Research Council
847523
Indo-US Science and Technology Forum
IUSSTF/JC-142/2019
John Templeton Foundation
62840
Ministero degli Affari Esteri
PGR01167
Ministero dell'Istruzione, dell'Università e della Ricerca
2020KB33TP
Ministero dell'Istruzione, dell'Università e della Ricerca
2022-Z9X4XS
National Aeronautics and Space Administration
21-ATP21-0010
National Aeronautics and Space Administration
80NSSC22K0806
National Science Foundation
AST-2205920
National Science Foundation
AST-2307146
National Science Foundation
AST-2307147
National Science Foundation
PHY-090003
National Science Foundation
PHY-20043
National Science Foundation
PHY-2207349
National Science Foundation
PHY-2207502
National Science Foundation
PHY-2207638
National Science Foundation
PHY-2207650
National Science Foundation
PHY-2308886
National Science Foundation
PHY-2308887
National Science Foundation
PHY-2309066
National Science Foundation
PHYS-2309064
National Science Foundation
PHYS-2339969
Owens Family Foundation
Swiss National Science Foundation
PZ00P2-202204
Science and Engineering Research Board
CRG/2021/004565
Science and Engineering Research Board
DST/SJF/PSA-01/2017-18
Simons Foundation
896696
University of Virginia
Villum Fonden
37766
Villum Fonden
53101
Villum Fonden
VIL37766

Dates

Accepted
2024-12-18

Caltech Custom Metadata

Caltech groups
LIGO, Division of Physics, Mathematics and Astronomy (PMA)
Publication Status
Published